Phoenix and Flame
by Gin-Ryu
Summary: Royxoc Starts BEFORE Ishbal Massacre One sided Kimbleexoc. Say something witty! something smartno funny! Think Roy! THINK! Finally, Roy spoke: So..umm...nice weather we're having...
1. The PitterPatter of Roy's little Heart

**I don't own FMA but this is an extended fanfic, which shoudl eb very LONG! It starts with this chapter, and it starts before the war in Ishbal, should I continue during the war or after? Not at all? Or just one or the other? Or BOTH?" My vote is both.**

_**The Pitter-Patter of Roy Mustang's Little Heart (Suposed to sound Corny)**_

Roy hit the counter with his glass, signaling the bartender for yet another drink as Maes looked at him. "Oh come on Roy, are you gonna do it what?" He finally asked the eighteen year old state alchemist, who merely glanced to one side at the drafted State Alchemist, who was only a few seats away.

She was in a white tank top, just like them, and wore her uniform pants too. She had tannish skin, and two bright hazel eyes.

"Oh come on Roy! Armstrong says that the latest words about her are that she's a pyro, and your the FLAME alchemist! You two are MADE for each other!" Maes coaxed, but still, his friend refused to budge from his bar stool.

"Excuse me, sir?" The bartender said, tapping Roy's shoulder, which was necessary seeing he had his head in his arms trying to descried whether he should leave or go talk to this new beauty.

Actually, she really wasn't that pretty...More... Unusual.

"Hello? SIR!" The bartender practically grabbed Roy by his jet black hair and pulled him to eye level. Actually, he did.

"What?" Roy asked, glaring at the bartender with threatening eyes, though he was half drunk and only managed to maintain the death glare for a few moments.

"The girl about three seats to the left paid for your next round of drinks...Though I don't think-"

"Another round!" Roy spoke drunkenly as Maes cheered, only slightly less drunk then his drinking partner.

But the next round on the mystery alchemist turned into the next three...and then the next five.. and then and unfinished free tenth round appeared, Maes, having stopped after the first round, was responsible for dragging the unconscious Roy out of the bar and getting him into their cab.

The next day however, as Roy walked in with a headache and a bad temper, he found someone sitting at his desk, feet up, reading through his most recent report.

Of course, it didn't help much that Roy was deprived of his morning coffee as well.

"What are you doing at my desk!" He roared and the person, shutting the folder yet still hiding her face with it spoke. "I wanted to know how you take your coffee, Mr. drunk- I mean...what's your name?"

"Roy Mustang! and- wait, did you say coffee?" he asked, his expression softening at the thought though disbelief was written in his onyx eyes.

"Yes. How do you take your coffee?" The voice was a soft sound, still calm dispite his earlier shouting and though it wasn't loud, It was strong and form, as if she was used to giving commands and making them be obeyed.

"Sugar, no cream."

"Then yours is on the left." She said, gesturing at the three cups on the table in front of her boots.

"What?" He was a little surprised, having not noticed the cups before, and, now that he thought about it, He didn't recognize the voice that came from the girl who he would've usually accused of being Hawkeye. "Who are you? why are you here?"

"I'm the Phoenix Alchemist who got sent here from the east, and my name is Ashes. I also paid for all those drink you had last night. And your coffee is the eon furthest left." She put the report down as she spoke, when he looked at her wide eyed he noticed the pink that tinged her light-tan face.

As he had thought before, she wasn't particularly attractive. Her hair was dyed a flaming red orange and cut the chin length, then left straight. Her eyes where a red-hazel that seemed the dance with a cheery fire. She was thin, and he saw as she put the report down and stood that she was a bit shorter then him, by a head...which was literal, as her eye's came level with his throat.

She was in uniform, that hung off her unceremoniously.

"Oh...did you mean why is there three cups?" She asked after a moment of silence, breaking eye contact and looking down at her feet, and then to the left.

"Yes."

"Well, I asked around but no one knew, so I just got black, cream no sugar, and sugar no cream."

"Hawkeye drinks black, if you drink cream, and Maes in investigation drinks cream, if you drink black." Roy said as he sat down, and she smiled at him as she moved to walk away.

"Wait." He said as her hand touched the door and she turned.

Say something witty...Funny-no dashing...Maybe a joke...about what...umm...Think fast Flame! THINK! I have an extra seat reserved at the cafeteria- no that makes me sound poor. You would honor me to go on a da- no. too formal. Your just so unbelievably- No, just not me... THINK!

"Umm...Nice weather today." He said jerkily before mentally hitting himself. He was talking about the weather! the **_weather_**!

"Oh, you mean the rain? I like Rain."

"Oh, is it raining?"

STUPID STUPID STUPID! YOUR WEARING DRENCHED CLOTHES AND A HAT, YOUR SOAKING WET FOR GOD SAKE! YOU WHERE JUST SAYING HOW NICE THE WEATHER WAS! GOD I'M SUCH AN IDIOT!

"Yeah it is." She laughed a little as she stepped out of the door and walked first to Hawkeye's office, then to the investigations wing so she could deliver the remaining cup. She had already drank her coffee.

"Why did you send me to get coffee again?" She asked Riza later as the stood outside, Riza taking a break from shooting it at a target-dummy, looked at her smiling.

"Because, haven't you figured it out yet Ash?"

"It's Ashes... And what?"

"That Mustang finds you quite the looker." Maes said as he walked up and Riza laughed as Ashes' face turned red.

"So, did you two talk about anything while you here in that office?" Hawkeye asked, smiling slyly as Ashes shook her head, laughing so the fire in her eyes seemed to glow even warmer.

"No, just about the weather...I made a joke but I guess he wasn't amused."

"What was the joke about?"

"Well, I said 'Oh you mean the Rain?' referring to the fact that the water pipe broke and was spraying water everywhere and making the sprinklers come on, and he just hit himself in the forehead, and I walked out laughing about it."

"What are you three talking about?" Roy asked as he approached but before he could stop himself Maes laughed as he spoke waking exaggerated hand motions.

"Just about you, Oh ROMEO! and your undying love for Juliet," he gestured at Ashes who laughed and tripped Maes as he made to start skipping, talking about how Roy's heart when pitter-patter and yearned for her touch.

Roy stormed off, face red, and he avoided eye contact with Hawkeye, and Maes the rest of the day, though he could still hear Maes murmur under his breath when they passed in the hall, "and she makes you little non-existent heart go pitter-patter."

"Hey!" a slightly familiar voice yelled after Roy, who was halfway to the gate, and he turned to see Ashes running to catch up with him, her jacket still tied around her waist, leaving her in her uniform pants and a white tank top, identical to the one she had worn the night before.

"What?" Roy asked grumpily, expecting more ridicule. But she merely walked beside him and said after a moment of silence. "You... You take your coffee sugar no cream right?"

"We already went over this. Why?"

"So I know what kind of coffee to get if you show up late to the cafe by Barry's Butcher Shop at seven o'clock tonight. See you then."

"Wait!" He said after a minute of realizing what just happened and managed to stop her before she made it to her cab.

"What should I order you if you show up late?"

"Whatever I like." She said smiling as she slid into the cab and, after it shut, thought smiling to herself.

"Then I'll know if your even worth a second date, or if Kimblee was right."

Roy, meanwhile, stood dumb-struck by the gate, half wondering what she'd meant by "Something I Like" and half wanting to punch the air in triumph. He settled with smiling instead, and walking home instead of taking a cab, "...Half skipping to the beat of the pitter-patter of his little heart."

Or at least, that's how Maes explained it to Hawkeye, Kimblee, and Armstrong.

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	2. Why Ashes Can't keep a Boyfriend

_**Why Ashes Can't Keep a Boyfriend**_

"What to wear..." Roy mumbled as he stepped out of the shower, steam still filling the bathroom and distorting his reflection in the mirror as he ran his fingers nervously through his hair.

"Hm...I wonder what he'll be wearing." She said out loud as she looked in the mirror and, after a moment silence, she grabbed a marker and went over to a wall in her room and started doodling on the wall.

"This? no...to informal...no...too formal... no...no...no..." Roy muttered as he dug through his closet in a fit of what Maes referred to as "Whyroycan'tkeepagirlfriend Disorder".

"So in the distance the wolf cries and then the wind sighs and then all is asleep except me and you, Kay-hoo Kay-hoo. the mocking bird sings, Kay-hoo, Kay-hoo." Ashes sang as she grabbed a different marker and started coloring in her doodle.

His fingers tapping restlessly against the cafe's table, Roy sat with two cups in front of him. He was wearing his white collared shirt and his uniform pants, the sleeves of the rest of his uniform tied around his waste.

"Hey, have you seen my date Gordon?" he heard Ashes ask the old man behind the door, who laughed and said, "Who? Jack?"

"Nah, Jack's outside, I mean another boyfriend."

"Oh, well that fine gentleman in that booth is waiting for a date." The old man said as he pointed at Roy, and her eyes widened as she walked over looking at him in shock.

Roy's hair was combed back, making him look completely different, and as he stood abruptly as if at attention and stuttered as he said, "G-Good Evening Ms., I brought you-"

But he was cut off by her hand moving to his unnaturally tidy hair and with one fast movement messing up the tamed hair, that fell back to its appropriate place. "Did you just get out of an audience with the Fuher or something?"

"I..uhh...I...brought you..umm..." He face tinged red, another symptom of his "Whyroycan'tkeepagirlfriend Disorder".

"Flowers-chocolate flowers. Too birds with one stone, huh?" She grinning as she sat down across from him.

"Birds? What?" He asked, face getting redder.

"Nothing, relax will you? I'm, not gonna pull a gun."

That was when Roy's eyes wandered to what she was wearing. It was a flaming red-orange tank top and baggy pants. On her upper arm was a thick gold bangle with something engraved in it.

"Oh...Ok..."

"By the way, sorry I'm late, I couldn't get out the door without my boyfriend following and then I had to convince him to wait outside."

"ok...Wait Boyfriend!" He asked, his expression wide eyed as by some miracle his eyes figured out that her bracelet said JWH+AEM.

"Wait I-"

"So what am I? a one night stand!" his voice got a little louder as over-reacting, another sign of "Whyroycan'tkeepagirlfriend Disorder", reared its ugly head.

"Roy. Listen ok, jeeze it's a joke. My dog acts like he's my boyfriend and everyone calls him that since his name is Jack."

"Then what's your bracelet about!"

"It stands for Jack Wolf Hybrid+my name. I swear ok I haven't had anyone ask me out unless it was just for sex in atleast a year."

"That's a lie."

Her eyes widened as he smiled with a half-laugh, "I asked you out."

"So, I don't know if its for sex or not."

"It's not. Trust me I haven't gone out with atleast 400 different women just for sex?"

"So your a playa'?"

Roy's face turned red as she laughed, before noticing the cup in front of her and, readying herself for the answer asked, "So, what do I like?"

"I have no idea, but rumor say all women like chocolate so I got you hot chocolate."

She sighed in relief and took a drink. Even if he had gotten it right by a fluke, he hadn't ordered her coffee.

She HATED coffee, and now she knew everything about Flame that Crimson had said was probably a lie.

"So your a state alchemist too aren't you?"

"I'm Phoenix...I control fire."

"How about you show me?"

"I control it...I can't make it,.." She blushed, eyes looking sheepishly up at him.

It was almost an hour later when they walked outside, Roy going to walk her home, and he was cut off mid sentence by a bark and two large paws pinning him down.

Meanwhile Crimson lay in his bed, one of his grins plastered on his face as he touched himself while thinking of Ashes.

"Get off him Jack!" She said as she pulled Roy up and glared at the very large wolf-dog that looked at Roy as if he was a hated enemy.

Roy snaked his hand into Ashes' as they made their way towards her small town house, only the get it nipped by Jack.

His dog-eyes looking at Roy as if to say, 'Hands off, she's mine pal."

Just then they reached her front door and she opened it without a word of goodbye. She stood in the doorway, her back to Roy for a second before she turned and said, "Have you ever seen the movie called Runaway Bible?"

"No."

"Then come on in, I'll make popcorn." She said, grabbing his arm and pulling him in.

Later they sat on her bed, (That was in couch mode since in was a futon), a bowl of popcorn at their feet, laughing at the movie.. Jack sitting between them, watching Roy as if to say, "Hands off".

It was hardly a wonder why Ashes couldn't keep a boyfriend.

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	3. Jack's Approval

**_Jack's Approval_**

"See ya tomorrow!" Ashes yelled from her doorway as Roy walked to the corner and turned out of sight...Then appeared and turned the opposite direction with his face tinted red as he smiled sheepishly up the street at her before disappearing once more.

Jack grabbed Ashes' sleeve and dragged her back inside with a whine and she obeyed, smiling as she shut the door and locked it.

"SO?" Jack's intelligent blue eyes seemed to say as she collapsed on her bed with her hands behind her head, he jumped up beside her and licked her cheek to get her attention and she only go a laugh as she pulled him over on her while she sat up and started messing with his pointed wolf's ears.

"He's nice...he's really nervous and a little lacking in confidence but...He's nice, and you didn't scare him...he a Keeper?"

Jack gave a doggish smile as he lolled out his tongue and she hugged him, burying her face in his sweet smelling mane of red and black fur.

Meanwhile Roy was still walking home, taking the long way to avoid any ally's he walked the busy, still crowded streets and didn't even stop at the bar for a bottle of gin on the rocks, as was his usual custom after a date.

"So Roy, how'd it go?" Maes asked his room mate when he returned, and Roy just shrugged. "It was OK."

"Finally! I was beginning to think you'd never find a girl friend you'd like Roy!" Maes spoke in a spastic bought of happiness that Roy merely rolled his eyes to and pulled off his shirt, throwing it into the pile of other shirts and falling face first into his unmade bed.

Maes often claimed that his room had a weird smell to it, but when this subject arose Roy would merely tell Maes that it smelled like him... In which case Maes would tell him that that must be the reason he didn't ever have a girlfriend. Because he smelled like Gin, Cigarette smoke, and Body Odor.

Roy just laid like that for a few minutes, thinking before rolling over, crab-crawling to the top of the bed, and picking up his advanced alchemy vol. III ninth addition. and started where he'd left off the night before.

He kept his face buried in the book as he kicked off his shoes and continued undressing until he was in only his boxer. (Which were red. Just red.)

He pulled the sheets over his legs and turned the page. On this page was a transmutation circle, about forty times more elaborate and precise then his own that controlled the oxygen density in the air.

It was an array to control the element water...which meant it controlled all the chemicals that formed water.

Maes came in an hour or so later and looked at Roy, who had the book laying on his chest,. one leg fallen straight and his hands still on the book. He turned off the light and walked off to the phone, deciding to check up on Gracia, and picked up the receiver.

"Jack! Lemme up!" Ashes said as she tugged at her arm, which was unceremoniously pinned beneath his strong, sleeping, wolfish body.

He opened his eyes for a moment as if to say sarcastically, "Well good morning to you too girlfriend."

He stood up, stretched, and leapt off the bed.

Ashes poured some left overs into his bowl and he pounced on it as if he where staving. Ashes on the other hand, ate nothing.

Instead she took the time to pull off her sleep clothes, which were boxers and a baggy shirt, and sink down into the hot water that now filled her bath tub.

Now gnawing on a bone while laying on the bed, it was Jack that heard the knock on the door.

Not that it really mattered, he had to investigate anyone on the doorstep before he'd let Ashes open the door.

He bit the towel and pulled the the right, which slid a large piece of the lower half of the door out of place, and stepped out to see none other then Wolfe Kimblee, The Crimson Alchemist.

Jack didn't like this man, and his intelligent eyes narrowed into a glare as he showed his teeth to this tall man.

he smelled highly of gun powder, which Jack had known as a puppy back in Ashes home town by the sea. He remembered it was the scent that took the leader of Ashes pack away when that scent had come and a loud noise had made him snarl.

"Hey there, Pete isn't it? Where's Ashes?" Kimblee said bending low so he could be eye to eye with the dog. He reached to pet his head but Jack snarled at it and turned tail, walking in, shutting his door, and licking the small hook and eye lock that would hold it shut.

In his eyes, Kimblee was no different then the man in camouflage who made Ashes cry.

And he hated anyone or anything that hurt Ashes. Actually, he hated most men, because it had been a man who had beaten him everyday as a pup before Ashes saved him. He remembered biting her the first time she tried to pet him, but all she did was put some food on the ground for him.

"Ashes!" Kimblee shouted as he pounded on the door.

"Why are **_you_** here Kimblee?" Roy asked as he made his way up the pathway, his voice giving no sign of trying to cover up the bitterness in his voice. Kimblee liked killing, and in Roy's eyes, that made him a murderer.

"I'm here to walk Ashes to work, make sure she's safe. What would a scrawny white-boy like yourself be able to do if someone attacked her, scream like a girl?"

"Uhh...why are you standing on my front porch?" Ashes asked in a surprised voice, in her uniform her hair only mostly dry. Her bright hazel eyes gleaming with that laughter, and yet still hinted confusion as she held her head to one side.

"I came to walk to work with you, but he-" they said at the same time before Jack ran out to Roy and Kimblee said as Roy lifted his hand to pet Jack. "Watch out, that dogs a mean son of a bitch."

'maybe he just doesn't like you." Roy said as he patted Jack's head and Jack ran, grabbed Ashes' sleeve, and dragged her towards him.

"Sorry Kimblee, Jack and I are gonna walk with Roy-Careful, Jack might bite you."

Kimblee tried again to put his hand on the wolf-hybrid, which snarled and snapped at it.

Kimblee walked away towards a bar when Ashes and Roy and Jack rounded to corner and, laughing, Ashes said to Roy with a smile.

"Congratulations, your the first guy to ever get Jack's stamp of approval."

Jack hated most men, but as he looked at Roy he lolled his tongue out in laughter. "But anyone he didn't scare away the first date was good...but he still wasn't allowed to took Ashes, because if he did."

Jack might be tempted to kill him, just like how he had killed the men in camouflage who had hurt Ashes when he was little.

Because no one was aloud to hurt the one who saved him.

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	4. Chicken and the Scent of War's Aproach

_**Chicken and Scent of War's Aproach**_

Roy didn't look up as the door opened in front of him, and as he attempted to finish the paper work that was due an hour earlier he recognized the intruders voice immediately.

Maes.

"So Roy, rumor has it that you and Ashes are getting serious now."

"What are you talking about?" Roy said coolly as he looked up at his room mate/ coworker/ friend.

'I mean that your "Whyroycan'tkeepagirlfriend" Disorder hasn't scared her off yet. Kimblee's pretty mad about it." Maes said plopping down in a chair across from Roy.

Roy sighed, scribbling his signature once more before Ashes' orange haired head popped in the door. It was covered in sweat, which showed she'd been doing the "Mandatory Exceptance work".

In other words? The hard work they shove on the new officers as a form a hazing.

"I'm going to go get some take out for me, Hawkeye, and Havoc. You guys want something?"

"That's ok, I eating dinner with Gracia tonight and need a full appetite. Oh, by the way Roy, that means you need to be gone till about midnight or so." Maes said, glancing at the Flame Alchemist, who looked tempted to make his friend go up like a match.

"That's ok. You Roy?"

"That's not right Hughes. Its my apartment too." Roy seemed to be ignoring Ashes, but his face turned a lovely shade of pink as Ashes raised and eye brow and said, "Hey scatter-brain! We're going out tonight remember?"

(Symptom 7 Of WhyRoyCan'tKeepAGirlfriend Disorder: Forgetting every date except the first one.

Symptom 8 Of WhyRoyCan'tKeepAGirlfriend Disorder: Remembering, and showing up partially dressed and/or drunk.)

"...Chicken."

"Roy, did you just speak Ishbalan?" Ashes looked at Roy as if he was insane, seeming to have not understood his VERY specific specification for lunch.

"No. I said I want chicken. C-H-I-C-K-E-N." He snapped at her, and immediately wished he hadn't as Jack leapt on him and knocked him backwards in his chair.

"Get off him Jack!" Ashes laughed as she walked over and propped Roy's chair back up, then put a hand out for him to pull himself up on.

"Look at poor abused Roy. I'll get you chicken. How's that sound?"

Roy looked back at his papers and started signing silently and furiously once more, flinging them into a large pile on his desk.

But he stopped when he realized he'd dated the last six papers as follows.

Date: With Ashes

"Crap." He sighed as he hit his head with a gloved hand.

Ashes walked next to Jack just as Kimblee appeared behind her.

He looked her up and down repeatedly, as if undressing her with his eyes.

Jack turned and growled when Kimblee cleared his throat.

Kimblee moved to strike out with his leg, but found Ashes' fist striking him in the face first.

"Don't you EVER kick Jack!"

Meanwhile, in a desert city called Ishbal, a series of special opts troops sat in tents strewn in the desert, making their plan to attack the Ishballans.

And no one knew...

Except Jack.

Because he could smell war approaching.

It smelled like Kimblee.

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